Platte Purchase


The Platte Purchase was a land acquisition in 1836 by the United States government from American Indian tribes of the region. It comprised lands along the east bank of the Missouri River and added to the northwest corner of the state of Missouri.
This expansion of the slave state of Missouri was in violation of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which prohibited the extension of slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north, except within the boundaries of the state of Missouri, as defined at the time of the adoption of the Missouri Compromise. The area acquired was almost as large as the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined, and extended Missouri westward along the river. St. Joseph, one of the main river ports of departure for the westward migration of American pioneers, was located in the new acquisition.
This territorial expansion significantly altered the state's borders and extended slavery north of the Missouri Compromise line. The newly acquired counties would later play important roles in both westward expansion and the regional politics of pre–Civil War Missouri.
The region of the Platte Purchase includes the following modern counties within its bounds: Andrew, Atchison, Buchanan, Holt, Nodaway, Platte, and a small portion of Worth. It also includes what are now the northwest suburbs of Kansas City, a small area of Kansas City proper, the cities of St. Joseph and Maryville, Missouri, as well as Kansas City International Airport and almost all of Missouri's portion of Interstate 29, save the small portion which runs concurrently with Interstate 35 in Clay County.

Purchase

When Missouri entered the Union, its western border was established as
"a meridian line passing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas river, where the same empties into the Missouri river, thence, from the point aforesaid north, along the said meridian line, to the intersection of the parallel of latitude which passes through the rapids of the river Des Moines, making the said line correspond with the Indian boundary line."
The purchase extended Missouri's western border north of the Kansas River east along the Missouri River to 95°46′ west longitude.
Less than a year after the Indian Removal Act of 1830, by which the US was authorized to remove the Native American population, the Missouri General Assembly was petitioning Congress to more clearly define the border on the northwest corner of the state. The Legislature noted the boundary was not clear, and that the land was not surveyed, thus leading to settlers encroaching on the lands. The most spectacular example of encroachment was Joseph Robidoux, who had been operating an American Fur Company trading post at St. Joseph, Missouri since 1826.
On January 27, 1835, Senator Lewis F. Linn wrote John Dougherty, an Indian agent, to inquire about acquiring the land. Dougherty agreed, noting that the territory was preventing access to Missouri River shipping by Missouri residents east of the purchase line. According to an early 20th-century historian, Dougherty's reputation among the Native Americans was that of the "Controller of Fire-water" from the Missouri River to the Columbia River.
The first tribes to give up their land were the Potawatomi, who ceded their land in the Treaty of Chicago. They agreed to this in 1833 but the treaty wasn't finalized until 1835. The Potawatomi moved north to a reservation in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. They moved again 1837–1838 in the Potawatomi Trail of Death to Osawatomie, Kansas.
The formal application came in the summer of 1835 at a meeting on the Dawes farm near Liberty, Missouri. Andrew S. Hughes, the US Indian agent for the Sauk and Meskwaki peoples, presided over a meeting of Missouri residents who formally asked Congress to acquire the land. Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton introduced a bill to acquire the land and it was approved with little opposition in June 1836.
An agreement was reached on September 17, 1836, with the chiefs Mahaska and No Heart of the Ioway tribe and leaders of the combined Sauk and Meskwaki tribes in a ceremony at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It was presided by William Clark, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, who was based in St. Louis. Noted diplomat Jeffrey Deroine, a formerly enslaved man, served as an interpreter for this treaty.
The Senate approved the treaty on February 15, 1837. On March 28, 1837, President Martin Van Buren issued a proclamation supporting the annexation. In October 1837, the Missouri General Assembly accepted the land and placed it all initially in the newly created Platte County.
This addition increased the land area of what was already the largest state in the Union at the time. The acquisition challenged the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by expanding slavery into free territory north of the southern Missouri border with Arkansas, and the Indian Removal Act. It required a second relocation of tribes who had just been moved "permanently" west of the Missouri border, as part of the forced Indian removal policy of ethnic cleansing from lands wanted by whites.
The tribes were paid $7,500 for their land. The U.S. government was "to provide agricultural implements, furnish livestock", and a host of other small items. The tribes agreed to move to reservations west of the Missouri River in what was to become Kansas and Nebraska. Furthermore, the U.S. government was to "build five comfortable houses for each tribe, break up of land, fence of land, furnish a farmer, blacksmith, teacher, interpreter." The reservations are today known as the Iowa Reservation and the Sac and Fox Reservation. The tribes gave up 3.1 thousand square miles of land for reservations of 29 square miles combined.
Michigan entered the Union on July 4, 1836. By the time the Platte Purchase was finalized, Missouri remained the second biggest state.

Settlement

The U.S. Government set up a United States General Land Office in Plattsburg, Missouri to handle the settlement. Much of the land was dispensed as military land warrants to veterans of the War of 1812. Under the terms of the program, which was expanded in 1855, the 160-acre land grants could be given to military descendants and those grants could be sold.
Initial settlement was concentrated in the Town of Barry in south Platte County. Almost overnight, Platte County became the second-largest county in the state, and Weston, Missouri was second only to St. Louis, Missouri in the state. St. Joseph would subsequently become the second-largest city in the state in the early settlement days. Since the purchase opened up a new slave area, the area was settled primarily by slaveholders from the Upper South: Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. They brought enslaved African Americans with them or purchased them at slave markets, to work such Southern commodity crops as the labor-intensive hemp and tobacco. These were grown in the southern portion of the purchase, where farms and plantations had access to the Missouri River for shipping to market. The northern portion of the purchase attracted fewer Southerners and slaveholding was rare.

Geography

Today the Platte Purchase area is among the most rural areas in Missouri. St. Joseph and Maryville, Missouri are the only communities totally within the purchase area that have populations greater than 10,000. Kansas City, Missouri has influenced the area, expanding its boundaries into southern Platte County.

Counties

A list of counties in the Platte Purchase region of Missouri including 2024 population estimates.

† Partially located outside of region
NameAreaPopulationCounty Seat
Andrew18,091Savannah
Atchison5,139Rock Port
Buchanan83,574St. Joseph
Holt4,241Oregon
Nodaway20,503Maryville
Platte113,207Platte City
Worth †1,872Grant City

Municipalities

A list of populated places in the Platte Purchase region of Missouri with 2020 US census populations.
† County seat
†† Partly outside Platte Purchase region
NameCountyMunicipal TypePopulation
Kansas City ††PlatteHome Rule City508,090
St. Joseph †BuchananHome Rule City72,473
Maryville †Nodaway3rd Class City10,633
Smithville ††Platte4th Class City10,406
ParkvillePlatte4th Class City7,117
Savannah †Andrew4th Class City5,069
Platte City †Platte4th Class City4,784
RiversidePlatte4th Class City4,013
Country ClubAndrewVillage2,487
Weatherby LakePlatte4th Class City2,077
WestonPlatte4th Class City1,756
Gower ††Buchanan4th Class City1,533
TarkioAtchison4th Class City1,506
Rock Port †Atchison4th Class City1,278
Mound CityHolt4th Class City1,004
Lake WaukomisPlatte4th Class City888
Oregon †Holt4th Class City837
AgencyBuchananVillage671
FairfaxAtchison4th Class City648
FerrelviewPlatteVillage642
EdgertonPlatte4th Class City601
Burlington JunctionNodaway4th Class City521
DearbornPlatte and Buchanan4th Class City482
HopkinsNodaway4th Class City472
Camden PointPlatte4th Class City457
RavenwoodNodaway4th Class City439
Platte WoodsPlatte4th Class City394
NorthmoorPlatte4th Class City291
MaitlandHolt4th Class City276
TracyPlatte4th Class City269
FarleyPlatteVillage265
FaucettBuchananCDP248
SkidmoreNodaway4th Class City245
Forest CityHolt4th Class City243
AmazoniaAndrew4th Class City238
De KalbBuchanan4th Class City233
Houston LakePlatte4th Class City229
EastonBuchanan4th Class City227
RushvilleBuchananVillage225
BarnardNodaway4th Class City201
Conception JunctionNodaway3rd Class City175
FillmoreAndrew4th Class City173
BolckowAndrew4th Class City163
ClearmontNodaway4th Class City158
PickeringNodaway4th Class City149
GrahamNodaway4th Class City147
SheridanWorth4th Class City145
ParnellNodaway4th Class City135
RosendaleAndrew4th Class City119
WestboroAtchison4th Class City116
CosbyAndrewVillage114
ElmoNodaway4th Class City114
ConceptionNodawayCDP111
CraigHolt4th Class City105
Lewis and Clark VillageBuchananVillage96
RidgelyPlatteVillage95
New MarketPlatteCDP88
Big LakeHoltVillage65
WatsonAtchisonVillage61
GuilfordNodawayVillage60
ArkoeNodawayVillage56
ClydeNodawayVillage55
ReaAndrewVillage46
QuitmanNodawayCDP42
IatanPlatteVillage39
BlanchardAtchisonCDP27
FortescueHoltVillage21
BigelowHoltVillage5
CorningHoltVillage3